country residence. Every evening the landlord went into the city and
brought back with him the horrible story of the day. "As to myself,"
Paine wrote to Lady Smith, "I used to find some relief by walking in
the garden and cursing with hearty good-will the authors of that
terrible system that had turned the character of the revolution I had
been proud to defend."

After some weeks, the two Englishmen contrived to escape to
Switzerland, leaving their enthusiasm for humanity behind them. Two
days later, a file of armed men came to arrest them. Before the month
was out, the landlord was carried off in the night. Last of all came
the turn of Paine. He was arrested in December, by order of
Robespierre, "for the interest of America, as well as of France, as a
dangerous enemy of liberty and equality." On his way to the Luxembourg,
he stopped at Barlow's lodgings and left with him the First Part of the
"Age of Reason," finished the day before. The Americans in Paris
applied to the Convention for Paine's release, offering themselves as
security for his good conduct during his stay in France. They rounded
off their petition with a phrase of the prisoner's,--"Ah, Citizens! do
not give the leagued despots of Europe the pleasure of seeing Thomas
Paine in irons." This document was presented by a Major Jackson, a
"volunteer character," who had come to Europe with a letter of
introduction to Gouverneur Morris, then minister, from Mr. Jefferson.
Instead of delivering his letter to Morris, Jackson lodged it with the
_Comite de Salut Public_ as a credential, and represented his country
on the strength of it. The Convention, careless of the opinion of the
"leagued despots," as well as of Major Jackson, replied, that Paine was
an Englishman, and the demand for his release unauthorized by the
United States. Paine wrote to Morris to request him to demand his
discharge of the citizen who administered foreign affairs. Morris did